My 2004 Explorer

[CDW6212R]

Great trip there, well done.

You are getting to know the 3rd gen well now. I've never been near one except walking by at a JY. How how do you think the back cargo area is, the floor to ground, versus the 2nd gen? Is it similar or within inches?

I'm getting nearer to being allowed to use my vehicle again for delivering mail, and wonder about the 3rd gen's sizes, length, cargo room, distance from FR bumper to FR door etc.

 

[4pointslow]

The second gen is lower to ground but the tires sizes are all different. I have 235 75 15 on my 1998 4 door so it is lower.
I don't like the cargo area in the 3rd gens so far, mine has the third row seating and the cargo area seems to slant down going towards the back.
In the future I may remove the third row seating and possibly the auxiliary climate control.

 

[4pointslow]

Space Saver Spare Tire for 3rd gen Explorer

I want a space saver spare tire for my 2004 Ex.
At the junkyard I tried a spare from an escape but the center hole was a bit too small.
Has anyone found a space saver spare for 3rd gens?

 

[CDW6212R]

The second gen is lower to ground but the tires sizes are all different. I have 235 75 15 on my 1998 4 door so it is lower.
I don't like the cargo area in the 3rd gens so far, mine has the third row seating and the cargo area seems to slant down going towards the back.
In the future I may remove the third row seating and possibly the auxiliary climate control.

Thanks, I know it's an odd/tough question. I've had the back inside of my 99 truck stripped to deliver mail. I never put it back in when I built the truck, it gives me more space. I'm thinking I'll end up removing the back seats too and see if I can use it that way too.


Isn't the spare under the back of your truck?

My Lincoln uses a space saver spare, and I don't plan to ever use it for my 255/45/17 tires. I've done much better by keeping a compressor and a high end repair kit, in two of my vehicles. That takes up less space, and I can almost always fix a flat faster than you can R&R a tire. I've used a spare one time in about 25 years, I got a very large rock in a tire of my mail truck. I couldn't stop the leak with two plugs, so I used the spare. The bad tire was only six months old, so I wanted to save it. back then the tires were only about $60 each, now it's way over $125 each for most good SUV tires.

 

[4pointslow]

3rd Gen spare

I will add that the truck seems much larger inside and out, you might have more room to put mail and stuff with a 3rd gen.
Having a compressor and good plugging kit is definitely a good idea, I have one in each of my three vehicles. Easier to plug than patch for sure.
I just want a spare because I plan to drive long distances and like you stated, sometimes a large object pierces the tire and can not be plugged. Want to have all my bases covered.
The spare would be under the truck if I had one, the spare tire carrier was broken too but I just replaced that.
I was looking for something tall like a 175 90 18, 165 90 19, or 175 80 19. They are all between 30-31 inches.
I am not even sure what will fit under the truck in the carrier. Should have test fitted one at the junkyard.
I did try to fit an Escape spare on the front hub of an Explorer but the diameter of the center hole was a hair too small.

 

[Joe in NY]

any reason for the space saver? I have a full size 265/60/16 up under mine.

 

[CDW6212R]

any reason for the space saver? I have a full size 265/60/16 up under mine.

That is a 28.5" diameter tire, what's the stock 16" size?

 

[4pointslow]

any reason for the space saver? I have a full size 265/60/16 up under mine.

My spare tire carrier was broken, so not so fond of the strength of the carrier and I have 265 70 17's which are heavy and about 31 inches tall.
I figured I would try to get somewhere close to that to protect the transfercase if I ever have to use it. I tried fitting the 265 70 17 and it was too big in diameter.
Figured maybe a 30 inch might fit, and if I could find one in a junkyard it would be cheap.

 

[Joe in NY]

Stock is 245/60/16. My Explorer came with the 265s and I put 265s on right after I bought it. Looking at other explorers, the stock tires look tiny and silly. The 265/60/16 fills the wheel wells perfectly. Ford shoulda made the stock 265.


4pointslow,

Ah ok. That is a much bigger tire than I have. What is factory for Explorers with the 17" rims?

 

[4pointslow]

245 65 17 is stock size, too small and doesn't fill the wheel well also.

 

[CDW6212R]

If the truck has AWD or a functional A4WD, all four tires have to match very closely, or it kills the transfer case.

If you have the A4WD, then you can also wire into the automatic circuit a switch to disable it(the brown wire mod) when necessary. That would allow you to use different front tires from the others, or just one like a spare. That's a good option to have if it's likely there could be different tire sizes. If one goes bad when the set has a lot of wear on them, then you can't buy/replace just one tire, unless you can be sure the front driveshaft will not be engaged.

That's part of why I'm wanting to convert AWD to the A4WD, so the spare doesn't have to be perfect.

 

[Joe in NY]

4pointslow,

What does your Throttle Position % reading do? I had a scanner hooked up to my explorer, I have drive by cable, base is 20% and WOT is 83%... 17% unaccounted for?...

 

[4pointslow]

I don't datalog throttle percent, just throttle position absolute in digital counts and they hit 798 on this truck. I am still learning this truck and it will take some time for me to get used to it.

Check your plate to make sure it is opening all the way, the second gen Explorers had a problem with the cable not pulling the plate open all the way.
There is a post on here(Explorerforum) that shows how to fix it.

 

[4pointslow]

Effects of larger MAF housing

I wanted to see the effects of a larger MAF housing with the stock slot style MAF sensor.
The MAF tube inside diameter of my stock 4.0 sohc air filter box top was 2.5 inch.(the 4.6L has a larger inside diameter)
Picked up an aluminum 3.5 inch maf tube, it fits right on the end of the stock intake tube of my 2004 Explorer. (funny how inside the air filter box top it is down to 2.5 inches)
With the stock MAF setup it hit 986 counts, and with the 3.5 inch it hit about 820. Only gives a little room before it would peg the MAF.
Guess I will try a few different sensors next. The stock sensor is a Motorcraft AFLS-131, I would like to try a ALFS-132 and ALFS-133.
I have the ALFS-133 in my 1998 supercharged Explorer with a GT500 MAF housing(4-4.5 inch?) and with 20lbs of boost it did not peg yet.

 

[4pointslow]

Fuel Pump Current Ramp

I wanted to test the stock fuel pump and see what the current ramp looked like before replacing the fuel pump.
Since I had this cheap 8 channel usb lab scope made by Hantek, I figured I would try it out.
I did a test on my 1998 supercharged truck first, it is a return system that just keeps the pump on all the time.
To test it I just removed the fuel pump relay, put a jumper wire in and put the amps probe around the jumper wire. Nice and easy.
Next task was to find the fuel pump wires on my 2004. It has an electronic returnless fuel system that is pulse width modulated so going to the relay won't work.
I found the wires under the truck at the back on the passenger side, I decided to go on the pink/black stripe wire with the inductive amps clamp(set to 1mv=10ma)
These lab scope pictures will be for future comparisons.

 

[4pointslow]

Two MAFS same results
So I tried two different mafs in the 3.5 inch housing and they seemed exactly the same. Both hit about 820 maf counts.
The MAFs were the ALFS-131(2004 Explorer 3L3A-12B579-BA) and the ALFS-133(GT500 4G7V-12B579-AA)
Was not expecting the same results, this makes me wonder why they have two different part numbers.
Here are the screenshots, the 131 is first and 133 second.

 

[Joe in NY]

when changing the MAF sensor pipe diameter you have to adjust other settings for the large difference in cross sectional area of the pipe.

This guy Turbo'd a 90s 4.6 mustang. Did a lot of cool custom work. This vid is about his MAF experiments.

 

[4pointslow]

Neat video's, I have 4 inch sewer pipe on my 1998 supercharged Explorer. Works great.
When changing to different size maf housings you have to change the maf transfer function. Like him I used a ratio to calculate the transfer function.
The new 3.5 inch divided by the old 2.5 gave me 1.40 and I multiplied that to the whole transfer function, it was close but I did another .08 and it got even better.
Good enough for WOT testing anyway. When all finished I put the stock air box back on, until a later date.

 

[Joe in NY]

ah ok.

Well area is (3.14)*(radius)^2

Sooooo
@ 2.5" = 4.91 square inches
@ 3.5" = 9.62 square inches

9.62/4.91 = 1.9585

also (3.5/2)^2 / (2.5/2)^2 = 1.9585

 

[4pointslow]

I some how always use the wrong formula.lol.
I was using diameter instead of area.
Maybe next weekend I can try to multiply the maf transfer function by 1.95 and retest.